Amanda Kesner (kesner at aecom.yu.edu) wrote:
:: I'm sorry to say that this was my experience, too, at MIT. Most of my
: classes WERE aimed at the pre-meds, and therefore, were almost solely
: focused on memorizing the "facts" that the profs wanted you to
: regurgitate, rather than learning concepts and critical thinking. Very,
: very few of my bio courses taught these really important skills, and the
: students that were there to learn, rather than get into med school,
: suffered greatly. (I am forced to admit, however, that during my time at
: MIT, I knew exactly 2 bio majors other than myself who were not pre-med.
: One is in law school, now, and the other is planning on entering grad
: school next fall like me. So much for teaching the future researchers...)
: Just my gripes on the subject...
that's incredibly disturbing to hear! i was an undergrad at MIT over
a decade ago, and my experience was completely the opposite; biology
teaching then was geared almost entirely towards critical thinking
with very little regurgitation of facts. there was a minimum of
catering to the desires of premeds (who were expected to learn to
reason just like those of us headed towards research. and most of
us were). nearly every exam i took in my major was open book & open
notes.
-sian
siang at mcb.umass.edu